war story
Winnipeg, Canada - Aug 27, 2022
Leaving Kharkiv
Leaving Kharkiv
By Olha Zahoruiko
Winnipeg, Canada, Aug 27, 2022
aiOn the 7th day of fights, I got into chats on evacuation sending the same message: "Help to leave Kharkiv in any direction." I wrote the name of our place, and Dnipro as our preference. I spent some days in the chat, there were no options.
aiOne morning a man called that he is going now, as a shell fell not far from his house. If we are ready, then he will pick us up in 20 min. Packing was fast, at first there was panic, how to do it so quickly. Everything fit in 2 backpacks. I looked around the house, mentally remembering if we had taken everything needed for some days. We turned off the water and gas and left the key for the neighbors.
aiI asked driver to show a Ukrainian passport, since both of us did not know each other. When we started driving, explosions began around, it was not clear whether it was possible to leave.
Messages were the same: "Help to leave Kharkiv for any direction."
aiI remembered another road, there were no explosions from that side. We turned around, I showed the way, and we drove to the Kharkiv-Dnipro highway. There were many cars. It was the first day the road was not shelled and there was an unofficial green corridor. Many of the cars had broken windows or the inscription “CHILDREN”.
aiFor the first half hour, driving along the highway, we were twitching from all the sounds, it was scary that fighters could come at any moment.
aiThen explosions seemed to have stopped. We could not believe that it could be quiet for so long, more than 20 minutes. We could hardly believe that we were able to get out, and are in a relatively safe place.
